Astronomy Magazine: Space News, Observing, Planets, Galaxies

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Announcing the winners of Astronomy Magazine’s 2026 Astrophotography Contest

$Illustration of a reddish, cratered Mars with white patches of frost, seen as a crescent-lit globe. A fractured, rocky moon breaks apart in the foreground, scattering boulders and fragments that stretch into a tan, dusty ring band across the planet against a starry black sky.$

Solar System

Mars’ moon Phobos is destined to become a ring

Stars

JWST tours Orion’s hidden stellar nursery

Solar System

The weird science behind Mars’ weirdest cloud

Picture of the Day

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A stellar illusion

Behyar Bakhshandeh from Carlsbad, California

The emission nebula IC 1318, also known as the Gamma Cygni Nebula, glows roughly 5,300 light-years away in Cygnus — far beyond Sadr, the bright supergiant star it only appears to surround. The imager spent 24 hours exposing in the Hubble palette (Hα/OIII/SII) plus RGB for the stars, using a 4-inch f/5 refractor at a remote observatory in Descanso, California.